Pilgrims at Oak Ridge

This is one of Lucy's favorite ways to lay. With her back legs pointing one direction, and her front legs pointing the opposite direction. I marvel at her flexibility every time she does it.

Making a quilt is something that has been on my list of life goals for a while. I actually started this quilt, oh, several YEARS ago on a whim, thinking I'd make it for someone who was pregnant. It's been so long I"m not even sure who I was thinking I'd make it for. Obviously, though, it did not get done then, mostly because I was sewing it by hand and quickly realized that it would take a LONG time to finish. Little did I realize just how long that would be. Last year while I was in Texas I got some steam and got the front mostly finished, then ran out of steam again when I tried to order this special foot for my sewing machine that then didn't fit, and so the quilt was again relegated to the closet. Moving, of course, put another damper on getting it done, as did the general business of being an intern. Saturday, though, on my day off, the weather was blah and so I decided to work on it. I realized I could just use the regular foot my sewing machine already had, ...

Gatlinburg, besides the numerous pancake houses and steak houses, also does have a rather cool aquarium. The best part (besides the mesmerizing jellyfish) is a long tunnel that goes right through a massive aquarium so you get to watch things swim right over you. It was great. I thought this looked like a very funny face... There were lots of sharks. I briefly had this thought about that Jaws movie where Jaws is in the aquarium and breaks through the glass of the walkway that looked a LOT like the walkway we were on. I definitely was able to appreciate the impressive dentition of these guys...

Jellyfish are beautiful. I could watch them all day.

I am off tomorrow. That makes over 36 hours in which I get to enjoy the fresh air outside the hospital. Can you tell I've been on medicine for almost two months? I can. To celebrate my day off I made chocolate souffle tonight, with raspberry sauce. There is nothing like warm, soft, chocolately goodness to put a smile on my (somewhat tired) face.

Too tired to blog. tired of call . Ready for April, which will bring an easy rotation, warmer weather, and Sam to SC. I'm learning I have a funny brother .

Warning: The following post contain explicit images of springtime. Readers in cooler climates who are prone to experiencing spring-envy should proceed with caution. It's Spring! Greenwood is welcoming the season in style with some very pleasant spring time weather. To mark the occasion I planted some flowers this morning. Ever since moving into our new house, Aubrey and I have been jealous of all our neighbors pretty mailbox plantings while our own mailbox languished in blahness. But not any more. Our realtor from last year dropped off some tulips as a thank you for recommending her to some of the new incoming residents, and I planted them. There are also some extra bulbs in there that will hopefully make an appearance soon.

All the "how to start a garden" books that I looked at advise starting small. They say you should start with a little patch, and not too many plants, lest you get overwhelmed, and you won't have to spend too much time, blah, blah, blah.... Aubrey and I have adopted the opposite philosophy. Namely, that if we plant enough stuff, surely something is bound to grow. Which is why our one south facing window is doing double duty as a greenhouse right now. Make your plans now to visit us about mid-july, and hopefully we'll have some good homegrown produce to share!

I've never been a huge fan of regular old, pasta with tomato sauce. But I'm discovering that there are plenty of other pasta dishes that I do love. I've also been trying to use what we have in our kitchen recently, as well as eat more vegetarian dishes since it is cheaper and healthier. With these guidelines in mind, this is what I came up with for dinner last night. Jeff and I had just gotten back from swimming, and I had no idea what we were going to eat. Since I've starting my fun and very busy job , I've had a hard time planning ahead for meals. My dear husband is great at doing this, but he also has been busying working on a paper for class, and he hadn't come up with anything, either. So it was after 7pm, and I needed something quick and good. But here is what I made: Sage and Brown butter tortellini with mushrooms, onions, and peppers Melt 1 to 1.5 sticks butter in a large skillet. Chop several tablespoons of fresh sage and add to pan when butter is m...

Over the weekend Aubrey and I retreated to Gatlinburg for the annual resident retreat. It was fun. We stayed in an enormous log cabin with a pool table, foosball table, and hot tub on the deck with a good view of the smoky mountains. Here we are on the deck with some really smoky mountains in the background on Saturday morning. Sadly the weather went all downhill from here. All the first year residents (and one second year) went out to breakfast at one of Gatlinburg's four million pancake houses. What is the deal with all the pancake houses? Here is a poorly centered picture of us in the parking lot of the pancake house. Then we went to the other quintessential Gatlinburg experience, go cart racing. Here is a pic of Aubrey leading the pack. In the afternoon we joined our friends Brian and Amanda, along with baby Corrie the Deep Sea Explorer, for a visit to the Aquarium. It was a surprisingly good aquarium, considering it was in Gatlinburg. The highlight is definitely the gl...

I finally took down my Christmas wreath. Just thought you should know. In case you need us, we'll be here this weekend on our resident's retreat. Our whole program gets to go spend a weekend hanging out in the mountains. We're just a wee bit excited. I finally found some make-up I'd been looking around for over the last few days. I apparently had accidentally put it in the recycling bin. And most importantly..... here is my newest cousin, Mitchell Robert. He came into this world 6 weeks early with a few health problems, but everyone can be praying for him (and his parents, Jared and Julia) as he recovers - he is still on a ventilator and had some surgery to correct a problem with his GI tract. But Welcome to the Family!! We are so happy he's here.

It was warm and sunny today. So instead of stuffing the laundry in the dryer, I decided to hang it up to dry in the back yard. It saves money. It saves energy. It's good for the environment(it makes the environment smell like clean clothes). And it inculcates a overall sense of pleasantness.

If they say a journey of 1000 miles starts with the first step, then the journey of redoing a chair must start with a small cushion. I've been meaning to redo this chair for a while to help make it blend with our new living room. Although it's quite nice and comfy, the fabric, as you can see, just does not really go with our pale blue, brown, and green scheme. I bough new fabric several months ago (on sale!!), but the thought of starting such a seemingly monumental task has just been too overwhelming thus far in intern year. Over the weekend, I felt like sewing, and so decided I'd recover the tiny accompanying pillow in some green and brown fabric. (Sadly I forgot to take a before pic of that pillow). Last night, I decided to take on the large cushion, so I'd be one step closer to finishing. Plus having a half-finished project will just about drive me crazy, which hopefully will be another good motivation to do the rest. One nice change from my usual projects is that I...

As a guy who's been to seminary, and is a wanna-be pastor, I find that people have certain expectations. For one they expect that I know stuff about the Bible and theology. Knowing that such an expectation exists, I feel like there are a few things I should just let everybody know ahead of time... 1. I often get the words "Calvary" and "Calgary" mixed up. Technically I do know that one is an infamous hill outside Jerusalem, and the other is a city in Canada, but I always have to think for a second before I can remember which is which. There's probably about a 95% chance I'll mess this up in a sermon someday and people will laugh at me. 2. I still have to use a mnemonic to remember what order Galations, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians come in. 3. I used to know the difference between Infralapsarians and Supralapsarians, and I kinda still know it in a vague, undifferentiated sort of way. But please don't ask me to explain it, or remember ...

About an hour and a half ago Aubrey and I were enjoying a nice, quiet, albeit windy, Saturday afternoon. Aubrey was napping (post-call) and I was reading some articles for school. The enormous hickory tree in our back yard was standing upright, in the manner common to trees. Then.... The first order of business is to thank God that the tree fell the direction it did. Because the base of the tree is only about 20 feet from the corner of our house, and it easily could have put a sizable hole in the roof. Thankfully it fell in the perfect direction to avoid just about everything of value, except for several other trees. I don't think either of the pictures really does justice to the size of this tree. It's huge. On its way down it took out another tree of equal size which fell further back into the forest. I went outside to investigate. Neighbors Dave and Kimber were already out investigating. Amidst the wreckage, Kimber had heard the whimpering of several baby squirrels, a...

I was very excited about getting to go home this afternoon and take a nap before call. I was almost home when I got a page from my office. I called back and was informed that there was a gentleman at the office who needed to SERVE ME with a SUBPOENA. A SUBPOENA. As in going to court. Needless to say, I didn't exactly have a restful nap until the guy got to our house and I could see what it was about. Apparently it is about some sort of custody hearing. Not, like I was envisioning, someone suing me for doing something wrong, leading to me losing my license, not getting a job, and going into to bankrupcy. (For instance.) I guess I can get in touch with the guardian litem, and I may not have to go to court, which would be nice. I'm not really sure what I'm going to add to the conversation, seeing as I barely even remember this patient, and I only saw this person one time for something minor. I also obviously need to write my name neater as both the subpoena AND the "witn...

I feel like I've entered a new club. When I'm on call now, I take outside calls. This means that our patients can call the hospital operator after hours and ask us questions or to call in medicine if they are sick. These calls are usually not very exciting and often just involve us giving some simple advice or reassuring someone that they are ok. But occasionally they get a little more exciting. Like, for instance, a few weeks ago when a lady called in to tell me her husband had been doing some electrical work and hadn't unplugged the washing machine, and when he touched the cord, there was some sort of "explosion" and his eyes had been burning ever since, and she wanted to know what to do.... As if the answer shouldn't be clear by the fact that her question contained the word "explosion" and "burning eyes." I told them they should come on in to the ER. On Monday night, though, I had a call of a different kind. A patient we had just dischar...

Among other things that contribute to her sweetness, Lucy has two very admirable qualities that strike me as somewhat undoglike. Both of them came into play tonight. 1. We had dinner at a friends house tonight, and while we were away Lucy weathered a pretty impressive thunder storm in the back yard. So when we got home she was sopping wet, and dying to come inside. Thankfully, Lucy LOVES being dried off. She likes shaking too, but she will sit patiently for as long as you want to rub her with a towel. Even having her paws dried is fine with her. 2. She also LOVES taking her medicine. I don't know what flavor her heart worm medicine is, but at the very mention of them she starts getting excited and running through her repertoire of tricks. Never before have I had a dog who would eat a pill without it being buried in a hot dog.

Well, with school starting at the beginning of February I did more reading this month than I have in a long time. However, I didn't really finish that many books. I am in the middle of about 8 of 9, but because of the school scheduling, I won't finish them for a few more weeks. So this month is an exercise in humility, and a reminder that its not about quantity, its about quality. Blessed are the Hungry by Peter Leithart - A collection of meditations on the Lord's Supper. A mixed bag. (7) Creation Regained by Albert Wolters - For school. Some books are like a good wine. This is a 1988 vintage from Canada. It has subtle hints of hamartiology, soteriology, and a christian worldview all aged in the rich barrels of eschatology. Full bodied and substantial, yet suprisingly sweet; it goes down easily. (9)

The shoes are made from this tutorial . The skirt is more or less based on this one . So craft away!

I guess I'm just at the stage of life where lots of friends are having babies. Which means I get to enjoy making some very cute things. Such as: These shoes are quickly becoming a favorite thing to make. And making that tiny little skirt was just too much fun!